But if you follow Perez’s logic, the club has no choice. Real has faced the dilemma of selling its best players in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

He doesn’t argue that Di Maria is fantastic and ‘deserved’ the money he’ll get paid by Manchester United. The club just couldn’t match the money, and so brought in reinforcements like World Cup Golden Boot-winner James Rodriguez.

And it seems Perez has responded to Ronaldo’s public displeasure by basically saying, “If CR7 was cool with being our second-highest player, maybe ADM would’ve stayed.”

“A player that is under contract and leaves is because he wants to. Real has always respected contracts. Di Maria had financial requests that I considered legitimate but we couldn’t satisfy them. I reiterate that we made him the best possible offer.

“With the exception of Cristiano (Ronaldo), Di Maria would have been the highest paid at Real Madrid. Had we accepted his financial demands it would have created an unbalanced treatment that would have put the club’s stability in danger.”

In other words: Ronaldo’s the best player on our team and maybe the world. We aren’t rocking that apple cart, nor are we going to set our locker room up to reap rewards whenever they ‘out-perform’ our marquee man.

Bulls**t. Only a moron would believe the word of a piece of garbage like Perez over Angel Di Maria. Perez is twisting himself into knots trying to justify the sale of an incredibly talented and well-liked player which was brought on by the unnecessary purchases of Kroos and Rodriguez.

What’s his excuse for loading off Alonso .. the only midfielder on the squad who actually cared about defensive work? They better get used to sheets like the 4 goals allowed to Sociedad last week.